Marionette's Nuclear Heart
by sourcandydaddy
Summary: Once upon a setting dusk-fall. A Knight met a lonesome Marionette overlooking the sinking sun atop the blue ocean. They talked the night away blanketed by a veil of stars and in time they fell for each other. The Knight had been burned by love before and the lonesome maiden possessed a nuclear heart. JaunexPenny because why the hell not, they aren't that many. Meh summary 6/10.
1. Blanket of Stars

**Knight**

A very eye-catching man graced the streets of Vale one weekend evening. He cut an imposing seven-foot figure with a neatly styled mop of golden blond hair. Sapphire blue eyes graced his fair features complemented by a jawline that may as well have been chiselled from fine Mistralian marble. He wore a light blue shirt that hugged his very well-built musculature tightly with a spiffy looking unbuttoned brown aviator leather jacket over it with simple black jean pants. He walked with a confident gait that masked uncertainty and innocence, a brilliant genuine smile always graced his features as he walked down the shopping district waving to familiar passers-by and on occasion reluctantly accepting merchandise gifted to him by lonesome housewife-vendors trying to get in his good graces.

This man was Jaune Arc.

Huntsmen Extraordinaire, S-Class. Graduate of Beacon, Valedictorian. Part time male model for Adel Project clothing line, as a favor for a friend of-course. Publicized Faunus-rights advocate and activist. Public hero and beloved symbol of peace.

Twenty-three years old and single.

In his left hand he held a brown khaki bag holding a variety of food stuffs ranging from freshly baked bread sticks, locally farmed produce such as apples, greens, handpicked strawberries and the like. Most of which had been gifted to him by the very nice ladies of the shopping district, the reason for which he surmised was for his celebrity status however small time he thought it was (oblivious fool). In his right hand he held onto a dog leash attached to a small black and white corgi.

In exchange for temporary residence in his old friend Ruby's apartment while she was away on a mission, he had promised to occasionally take Zwei on walks and keep the house clean. As a man of virtue, he held true to his promise.

…

Vale at midnight was a magnificent sight to behold, the dull lighting of the setting orange sun only seemed to accentuate the city's white-brick structures. Unlike Atlas, Vale was relatively less tech-reliant therefore less light pollution, which made the sky clear unveiling a blanket of stars and constellations. It was now nearing closing hour and shops to his left and right were packing up and shutting their doors for the night. The sun was still visible so Jaune headed for the docks to watch it set before heading off to Ruby's apartment, as was routine for him.

While drinking in the sight of the starry night he loosened his grip on Zwei's leash, a momentary weakness which was expertly exploited by the pocket hell-hound as it ran off towards the docks ahead of him.

"Dammit Zwei," he cursed as he took off after the dog. Somewhere along the way he lost sight of the corgi and may have gotten a tad bit lost as well. Putting his trust in is instinct he headed for the docking bay in hopes of finding his bearings at least.

"Bark…Bark…Bark."

He could hear a familiar barking coming from the docks. Originating from the far right of the docking bay where the sitting area was situated. Every time he strolls through downtown Vale he ends the day by going to the docks, always with Zwei, he figured Zwei must have tired of his pace and ran off ahead.

Turning around a bent which led to a clearing, he found Zwei by one of the dock benches that overlooked the ocean. Seated on the bench was a woman about his age if not older with a tuft of orange hair styled into a bob with a pink bow rested top her head. She had glowing green eyes, pale skin peppered by freckles and wore a white old fashioned blouse with an overall skirt that stopped short mid-thighs, jeweled by a black and green collar with matching thigh high stockings.

She looked unperturbed by the rude interruption of Zwei as she looked out into the sunset, the street light situated behind the bench flickered off and on for a moment and she turned around. Jaune was approaching her at a brisk jogging pace and stopped a good meter away from her when she turned around to face him. He was momentarily stunned by her beauty before kneeling down close to Zwei and secured the leash handle.

"Zwei, stop it," he reprimanded the corgi who stopped barking promptly.

"I'm so sorry about that miss, are you okay," he asked, "seriously, he never does that."

The woman turned to him and emerald eyes met sapphire eyes and with a smile she replied with exaggerated excitement, "I'm quite alright, thank you for asking sir."

Taken aback by her jovial response and almost textbook speak he flashed her back a smile with equal joviality. He excused himself before seating himself on the far end of the bench and placed the grocery bag in the small space between them. Moments passed as the two sat in serene silence as they watched the sunset.

"It's beautiful isn't it," he finally broke the silence.

"Quite so, I've never seen anything quite like it before," she replied in kind.

"Never seen the sunset before…," he mused to himself before concluding, "you must be from Atlas." He'd asked the good General at his graduation some time ago what home was like to which he replied, and I quote, "a freezing arctic-wasteland where the sun don't shine". As intoxicated as the man was he surely wasn't expecting his answer to hold this much truth to it.

"Why, yes. I am from Atlas."

"Sorry, I don't mean to be rude ma'am. I haven't even introduced myself and I'm already asking you where you're from," Jaune excused himself.

He stood up from the seating and with exaggerated flourish took a bow and introduced himself," Jaune. The name's Jaune Arc. Short, sweet, rolls of the tongue. Ladies love it." He cringed at the cheesy introduction and kept his head low to avert her probably now judgemental stare.

Instead of bursting in a fit of laughter 'at him' as he expected, as was to be expected from anyone really, she coyly giggled to herself with a light blush peppering her pale visage. She stood up from the bench and stood in front of Jaune, with equal flourish she grabbed the seams of her overall and took a light courteous bow.

" Penny. Full name Penelope Polendina. Charmed to meet you, Jaune," she introduced herself with a dip of the knee and a beaming smile.

Craning himself upwards from the bow, Jaune stood straight up to meet Penny still in a bow facing him with a sugary smile. He returned the smile and motioned for her to seat before settling himself down as well next to her, closer now and not teetering off the edge as he was before.

"Sorry about that, it's a nervous tic. It always comes out as a cheesy pickup line," he said to her as he scratched the back of his head, showing yet another one of his nervous tics.

"Apology accepted Jaune. Besides, I agree with you. It is a short and sweet name, and quite pleasant to enunciate. I can see why the Ladies love it," she said. To which he replied with a hearty confident laugh, betrayed only by the red that now covered his face.

With that awkward affair put behind them, Jaune and Penny conversed the night away with topics ranging from Jaune's trainee days at Beacon and Penny's own in Atlas to their mutually-shared profession Hunting Grimm. They would have talked till past midnight had it not been for Penny's scroll and Zwei interrupting them. The two parted ways for the night, with renewed hope Jaune walked the rest of the way with bounce to his step with a sanguine anticipation of the following day, hoping maybe just maybe, he might meet Penny again.

And meet her again he did, the very next day at the exact same spot always at the same time for the whole week and the one after. Each time they met, Penny never failed to greet him with a jovial " _Salutation_ " and with time she took to calling him by the moniker " _Friend! Jaune_ ".

Often times they would deviate from their sunset watching opting instead to take a walk by the pier as per Jaune's suggestion.

An unfamiliar feeling took root in Jaune's heart as the week went by and with the occasional accidental brush of the hand and that smile of hers that seemed to melt his heart it germinated till eventually it bloomed into…something akin to love.

He eventually mustered the courage to invite Penny on a date later that following weekend. In a haze of elation blinded by either excitement or nervousness, he had set up a time and location before he panicked and ran off before appropriating a response from her.

" _Most Sensational_ ", was her unheard response and acceptance.

* * *

 **A/N: Something I had in a notebook that I thought i should share with y'all. It'll be in three to four parts, don't really know how long I'll make it but it'll be short. I'm kinda just winging this.**

 **I have a horrid habit of not being able to adhere to a timetable so expect updates to be irregular. They'll never be an update gap longer than a month,that i promise, but the lapse will be there.**


	2. Language of Flowers

Uploaded this a while back but apparently the connection timed out so this whole time i thought i updated when really, i failed to (thanks Australian Internet).

* * *

He'd set up the _'date'_ for a Saturday morning approaching high-noon and the rendezvous point at the water-fountain in the Middle of uptown Vale's square.

Different from his usual casual wear, Jaune sported a semi-casual black denim-jacket with a white checkered-shirt that clung to his form as if for dear life. As per his insistence and much to Coco's annoyance, he'd opted to wear his usual black suit pants more for the sake of comfort and modesty than anything. The alternative had been a pair of scandalous short-shorts which Coco insisted were all the rage.

Like the gentleman his mother raised him to be, he'd arrived thirty minutes early and patiently waited in place for Penny to arrive any time within the next five or so minutes.

11:00 on the dot, Penny arrived just as his wrist-scroll struck the hour.

"~Hello Friend! Jaune. ~ Are you as excited for our outing as I am." Friend she called him. He hadn't specified the exact nature of the outing, as such Penny thought it simply a jaunt amongst _friends_ and not a date. That was of course no issue, he'd planned to take it slowly and see if he can change that.

"Of course, and let me start us off by saying that you look stunning," he said to her to which she hiccupped and looked away with light blush peppering her face.

And stunning she looked.

Penny had gone the minimalist route like the knight with her clothing. Like all her ensemble, she wore an old-fashioned, lime coloured sundress of modest length, held to her being by thin straps. She'd styled her hair to fall straight down to her shoulders instead of the usual bob, with a sword-shaped hairpin holding it back from covering her sight.

Simple but none-the-less, eye-fetchingly beautiful.

"Thank you Jaune. You too look exceptional, as always," she replied in kind, to which the knight sputtered to himself with a heavy blush on his face as he too looked away.

"…Anyway. I had lunch reserved for us Downtown at a friend's place, hope you don't mind taking the scenic route," he said as he motioned for her to seat in a rickshaw.

"Not at all," she said as she sat herself to the left side of the rickety vehicle so to see the landmarks proper as per Jaune's insistence.

Along the way they'd passed various street performances of death defying feats and the likes along with the usual minstrel who would serenade Penny much to her delight and Jaune's envy.

…

…

…

"Do you ever tire of the colour blue?" Penny asked.

The odd philosophical questions aside, his date with Penny had gone swimmingly well. He'd taken her to Velvet's Trattoria in Downtown Vale and treated her to a traditional Mistrali fish-dish which Penny savoured so much it was all she could talk about.

So much so, that for the rest of the date she would, occasionally, digress from the current conversation topic and start explaining the overwhelming sensation that flooded her ' _sensors'_ , as she put it.

"It's why I seat by the docks every day and watch the sky change colour from blue to orange and then I leave when it all turns black," she elaborated.

Penny was odd, Jaune had found out during his time with her. One moment she says she' following the flight-path of a butterfly like a child on a sugar-high (or Nora on a normal day) and the next she's making mathematical wordplay and quoting obscure poetry.

"For me It's a pastime I picked up from my time in the Wilds. So long as you know where the sun is, you're never lost," Jaune said as he handed to her a three-scoop ice-cream-cone with various flavours of her choosing.

"A fine tactic indeed," she hummed to herself, cutely licking the ice-cream scoop-by-scoop in small servings, closing her eyes in elation after each dab as her expression brightened while savoring the dessert.

A generous bit of the confection had made its way to her cheek and dribbled its way down to her neck and almost onto her bare shoulder but was stopped short by Jaune who had his one hand cupping Penny's unspoiled cheek and ran the thumb of his free hand up the trail collecting the sweet nectar off her silken skin before dabbing it on his tongue and licking it off.

"You had a little…strawberry I think…on the side," he said in a deep voice that had somehow carried through the small market square, which was for some reason silent even though it was packed.

Penny was, for the first time in her continuance, nonplussed. Had she a beating heart of flesh it would have surely skipped a few beats instead she just stared into empty space, dazed. All of a sudden the symmetrical patterns of the brick-layed pavement became the most interesting thing to look at as she tried to avoid eye contact with the knight least he see her features flustered, it was un-ladylike per Ciel's advice.

The affectionate display, however unintentional on their part(Jaune's mostly), lured more than a few stares their way, mostly from couples out on dates and the occasional envious lone house-wife. Jaune didn't seem to mind the attention he was drawing in, rather he was unaware of how risqué the nature of his action was as he simply continued to inhale the remainder of his cone.

A warm hand holding hers snapped her back to reality and rebooted her thought-process, figuratively of-course. Her composure regained and all systems nominal, she focused her attention back to her surroundings and the outing.

"Since I have you for the rest of the day, I had a surprise prepared for you Penny, but that won't be for another few hours. Is there anything else you want to do while we wait?"

"I'm not that familiar with Vale I'm afraid. If you had something in mind I'm sure it'll be enjoyable if you're there with me," she said displaying a level of emotion far outside her parameters and database of expression.

"There's a flower garden nearby. I got thrown out last time because I had the gang with me," Jaune said to her as he took her hand in his, motioning for her to come along.

"Just don't try to eat all the flowers and they might let us stay," he said in jest referring to an incident involving Nora that had him thrown out the last time he visited. The context of which was lost to Penny but regardless, she appropriated an amused response, if only to appease him.

…

…

…

The flower garden was a couple hectares' worth of land, situated a good five-minutes' walk away from the Vale Metropolis area. Each square meter filled with various flower arrangements, fanciful shrubbery and topiary garnishing the patch of land. While getting a haircut earlier that day, he'd been informed of the exhibit while reading the back of a women's magazine catalogue to pass time.

"Are you enjoying yourself so far Penny," he asked of her just as he was paying the entry fee and receiving a neatly crafted reed-basket for flower-picking, the-date-special the burly gate-keep had told him in a whisper.

"Very much so," Penny replied in her usual chipper manner while pumping her fists upwards to further express her excitement. "I've never seen so many flowers in one place before, I'm sure this will be an exciting experience."

"Well you're going to love this then," he said as he handed the basket to her, "you get to pick however many flowers you want and take them home with you in the basket."

"Sensational," she replied, her expression was positively electrifying such that Jaune couldn't help but stare longingly at her cheery smile.

With a bounce in her step she took his hand in hers, gripping it with such strength that no man or woman had any right to possess, leading him in a beeline for the most colourful display in sight.

"If you wouldn't mind…I would like to try and collect every one of each. I have calculated the most optimal route that would allow us to do so before closing time," she politely asked of him while looking to-and-fro, shifting her gaze at every odd coloured flower with wide-eyed wonder.

Jaune knew that underneath her sometimes childish mannerisms and apparent ignorance of the world, Penny was incredibly intelligent such that she'd left him dumbfounded on more occasions than he'd like to admit. A trait he found charming and added to Penny's repertoire of things he liked about her.

"Let's not waste time then," he replied and watched her expression grow even brighter as she pulled him along to an exhibit of yellow frill-petaled flowers.

A mad dash later, they both arrived at the first choice exhibit. Penny took a crouch and adjusted her sundress so to not touch the dirt in a ladylike manner. Her now straight hair fell to cover her eyes to which she pushed the bangs and tucked them behind her ear, a gesture that got Jaune staring longingly and heart dancing.

"The sign said these are Golden-Calliopsis' **.** I decided to start here with a flower that I thought fit you best as thanks for accompanying me," she said, breaking the knight from his reverie. Jaune took a crouch next to her, using a pair of plastic scissors that came with the basket he carefully cut a single flower by the base of the stem at a sharp angle and gently placed it inside the basket.

"Hold still," he said to her softly while cutting another one by the stem, this time making it a little shorter. He pulled her in towards himself, close enough to feel her breath as well as make out every one of her beauty marks(freckles). Cupping her features by the chin, he pushed her orange locks aside to vacate the top of her left ear and fitted the flower atop with the free hand.

"Where to next," he asked of Penny who was once again flustered and had yet to recover from their moment earlier.

"The _~hic~_ lilacs," she hiccupped in between, a somewhat nervous tic he'd noticed in Penny whenever she lied (something she rarely did) or when flustered or nervous.

"Time's a 'wastin," he said as he motioned for her hand in his, in turn she scooted closer to him so to link arms. There was no calculation or model-reference behind the gesture, she had simply followed her 'heart' and did what came next.

* * *

 **Words: 1770**

A/N: **If you ever visit Canberra in Australia, make sure to come during Floriade with your SO, perfect place to hold weddings and first dates _(hella expensive but alright if you don't mind getting someone else to pay $10 for candied flowers)_. Its a 10+ day event with flower exhibits and music as well as flower themed foods, _sunflower seed derivatives mostly._**

A couple years back they had an edible flora display by the waterfront which had a date special _(a carry basket to collect flowers and make a bouquet, you could either keep it or submit it for the competition they held for best display)._

Brings back memories of yesteryear, when i was dragged to buy ridiculously expensive dresses en-mass only to end up wearing a hand-me-down instead and getting formal _(prom for Americans)_ pictures taken by the waterfront.


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